Building The Firm:
People, HR, & Employment Issues for Emerging Managers

David Baron is Co-Head of Seward & Kissel's Employment practice. He represents and advises clients across a broad range of labor and employment matters. His approach is to provide practical guidance by balancing legal risks with each client's unique business goals and culture, and to find creative solutions to complex problems.

David's experience is extensive and well-rounded. As a counselor, he guides clients through complicated, sensitive, and delicate employee-related matters, including those involving restrictive covenants, executive separations, layoffs and internal employee complaints. David also advises on business transactions, conducts and oversees workplace investigations, drafts and negotiates executive and other employment agreements, and drafts and implements workplace policies.

As a litigator, David represents clients in threatened and filed lawsuits involving employment discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, wage and hour disputes, and restrictive covenants and trade secrets. He also represents management in traditional labor disputes and collective bargaining matters. He has appeared in state and federal courts, arbitration hearings and administrative agencies around the country.

Chambers USA has recognized David for his work, with clients noting that he is "commercial," "thinks outside the box and prioritizes solutions" and "is able to cut through the chaos of any story and get to the heart of the matter." David is a member of the American Employment Law Council and devotes substantial time to pro bono matters.

Reena Jashnani-Slusarz is an operations and legal executive with over 20 years of experience in investment management including experience both as law firm counsel and in house counsel at several complex organizations. Currently Reena is the Chief Legal Officer of Sparrow House Advisors, a multi-family office. Prior to Sparrow House, she was the Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Juniper Hill Capital, a $6B multi-family office in Menlo Park where she was responsible for all functions other than investing (legal, compliance, finance, investment operations, human resources, etc.) and helped the firm navigate through the Managing Partner's passing. Prior to Juniper Hill, Reena was the General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Paradigm, a $12B crypto venture firm co-founded by Fred Erhsam (co-founder of Coinbase) and Matt Huang (former Sequioa partner) where she handled a variety of complex regulatory, compliance, governance, and strategic matters. Prior to Paradigm, Reena spent time at Elementum Advisers, a $4B U.S. registered investment adviser investing in insurance-linked securities and Mesirow Advanced Strategies, a $16B U.S. registered investment adviser with offices in London & Hong Kong which managed a portfolio of fund investments. Reena started her career at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago where she advised registered and unregistered investment advisers with respect to privately offered US and non-US hedge funds, fund-of-hedge funds and commodity pools.

Abby Kavanaugh is a Director on Stable Rock's HR Services team with more than 13 years of experience in human resources. She specializes in partnering with businesses to identify and execute people strategies in alignment with their business objectives.

Prior to joining Stable Rock, Abby held senior roles at Mariner advising business leaders across financial services. Abby also has extensive experience supporting the healthcare industry. She is recognized for partnering with leaders to solve complex people and organizational challenges through practical strategy, strong business acumen, and balanced, high-trust leadership.

Abby has extensive experience in the full employee life cycle including recruiting, onboarding, employee relations, performance management, leadership and talent development, engagement, rewards and recognition. She has supported multisite and multistate businesses and brings a wealth of HR compliance knowledge to the table.

Abby holds a Master of Business Administration from University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College. She also holds the Senior Certified Professional credential from the Society for HR Management (SHRM).